Purchasing Agent

Full Job Description

The position serves as a Purchasing Agent for the Logistics Service in a Veteran Affairs Health Care System (VA HCS) and supported catchment area.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet time-in-grade and specialized experience requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement, 03/18/2026.

Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement.

For a GS-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service.

An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials.

If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement.

In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade.

Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

You may qualify based on your experience as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-5 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: experience performing clerical or assistant duties in support of purchasing and procurement; procuring supplies and services to meet the purchase, rental, or lease needs of an organization; working with medical staff to determine procurement needs and priorities; resolving a variety of shipment, payment, or other discrepancies in support of procurement programs and operations; purchasing various equipment, supplies, and services through the use of a purchase card; and assembling and/or summarizing information from files and documents as required to create reports utilizing automated computerized supply/inventory management systems and Microsoft Office software programs such as MS Word and Excel.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social).

Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment.

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week.

Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities.

Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements: Requires some physical effort such as standing, sitting, walking, or bending. There are no special physical demands.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Major Duties:

This position primarily performs Purchasing Agent work to acquire supplies, services, and construction by purchase, rental, or lease through (a) delivery orders and/or (b) small purchase procedures.

The work requires knowledge of policies and procedures for delivery orders and small purchases.

Conducts purchasing for a VA Medical Center, and supported catchment area, under the micro purchase threshold and must have knowledge of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), VA Acquisition Regulations (VAAR) and other federal procurement laws.

Purchases various equipment, supplies, and services through the use of the government purchase card for micro purchases.

Reviews and edits purchase requests to ensure the item or service is adequately described based on the requester's need.

The incumbent will provide general guidance to potential vendors on requirements and information needed to be entered into the VHA's local vendor file, tracking and monitoring procurement transactions and verify the running balances to ensure procurement obligations are complete and approved prior to placing orders.

Represents the VA in discussions with vendors/contractors to obtain agreement on micro purchases and vendor/contractor compliance.

The incumbent researches, reviews, develops spreadsheets, and prepares reports for procurement under the micro-threshold to address departmental needs from the Supervisor.

Ability to compile, consolidate, organize, and summarize specific procurement information to support efforts related to annual budget estimates and a variety of onetime and recurring reports.

Provides excellent customer service to medical staff, customers, vendors, and contractors and resolves issues in an expeditious manner to ensure requests and bills are processed in a timely and accurate manner.

Examines incoming requests for completeness including presence of purchase request number, accounting codes, item description estimated cost, and quantity.

Ensures all critical information is included in the solicitation package and develops unique selection criteria for each purchase.

Provides procurement support throughout the procurement cycle by filing contracts, processing amendments and modifications, and monitoring the status of deliveries.

Reviews, assembles, and maintains procurement related files and all of the required documentation.

Conducts follow up action on undelivered orders and aged purchase card transactions to close out purchase orders.

Serves as the first line of contact for medical staff and customers in regard to procured items. Provides clerical support and coordination to approving officials and administrators.

Develops reports and spreadsheets, obtains, organizes, files and retrieves reports for briefing and presentation purposes. Performs other duties as assigned.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm (PST) Position Description/PD#: Purchasing Agent/PD99896S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Approved